The Raton Tigers traveled to Santa Fe Indian School on Friday night, Sept. 30 for the beginning of District 2AAA play and both the Raton offense and defense looked sharp coming off their first loss of the season, en route to a 56-6 win.
Raton welcomed back QB Jacob Mattorano who did not play the previous week against Socorro, and the Jr. looked like he had not missed a beat in throwing 3 TD passes, two of them to WD Hyer and one to Wyatt Berry. Mattorano had another 47 yarder called back on an offensive pass interference call. Raton’s defense bent, but did not break as the Braves had several long drives only to have a Raton defender thwart the momentum. One was Isaac Garcia’s tackle of the ball carrier for a loss on fourth down inside the Raton ten. Berry also turned in a Pick-Six for a 35-yard interception return early in the second period, and the defense had another fumble recovery inside the 20 to kill a long Braves march to start the second half.
Raton’s Adrian Romero is a unique athlete. At 180 pounds, the senior plays nose guard on defense, but also plays TE and running back on offense. He ripped off a 51-yard gain early in the second period to set up a Raton TD, scored on a 20-yard TD run in the 3rd and converted the 2 PAT to end the game in the fourth.
And we haven’t even mentioned Cayden Walton. Walton entered Friday’s game with 1573 yards, averaging over 11 yards per carry and in sixth place in the nation in rushing yards. In NM, Walton went into the sixth game of the season as the leading rusher in all classes of competition ahead by some 600 yards and was also leading in total points and total TDs. Walton kept the train moving and showed wheels with a 75-yard TD run in the first, an 87-yard scamper to begin the second quarter, and a 38-yard scoring run in the third, plus another 41-yard run to help set up Raton’s first score in the second half.
Raton is now 5-1 overall (1-0 in 2AAA) and will come back home next Saturday night, October 8 with a District game against West Las Vegas. KRTN will have the broadcast on 93.9 FM and will have the video stream on KRTN’s Facebook.
